B.C. senior’s daily ocean singing ritual inspires strangers

Adam finds out how a man singing in the ocean is inspiring positivity in people on shore.

OAK BAY, B.C. — Matthew Kirby had been walking along this beach for decades, when one day the waves seemed to welcome him.

“I was called into that ocean,” Matthew says. An invitation the retired teacher accepted despite the cold.

“It takes your breath away a little bit,” Matthew says. “It feels sharp.”

It’s bracing, before becoming unexpectedly embracing.

“When I’m in the ocean, it’s my great friend,” Matthew says.

That first day he could only stand the cold for two minutes. The next day, four. But by the end of the week, Matthew was spending more than half an hour swimming in the ocean.

“The coldness is freeing,” Matthew says. “And actually, makes me think more clearly.”

It’s an opportunity to admire his current surroundings, reflect on his past adventures, and commune with the loved ones he no longer can.

“I did often think about my father,” Matthew says of his mornings immersed in the ocean. “He used to sing to me when I was a boy.”

So, although Matthew had never previously considered singing in public before, he was inspired to do just that.

“Waltzing Matilda,” he begins singing as he walks up to his neck in the water. “You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.”

It felt so good, Matthew didn’t stop. And for the past few years, no matter the season, he sings every morning — about 20 songs (ranging from pre-Second World War tunes to hits from the 1970s).

“Hallelujah! Hallelujah!,” Matthew sings the Leonard Cohen classic before beginning the Irish folk song, Danny Boy. “The pipes, the pipes are calling.”

“I sing because it’s joyful,” Matthew smiles. “I sing for myself.”

Matthew never imagined that he’d also end up singing for strangers on shore.

“I didn’t know where it was coming from at first. Then I saw it was a man singing in the ocean,” Esa Petrie smiles beside the beach. “He’s a wonderful singer and I was harmonizing to myself as I walked along.”

“He has this music inside of him which just keeps bubbling up,” Arafin Graham said. He regularly observes how people passing by are inspired by Matthew’s musicality. “It touches people in a really positive way.”

And when we can be confronted by so much negativity by the end of the day, to know that you can begin the next morning in such a positive way is a gift that Matthew accepts with a grateful song.

“And I think to myself,” Matthew sings as the rising sun paints the sky yellow and pink, before reflecting off the water and beaming on his face. “What a wonderful world.”